CHUYÊN đề SUMMARY ôn học SINH GIỎI QUỐC GIA

CHUYÊN ĐỀ SUMMARY I ĐỐI TƯỢNG Dành cho học sinh ôn thi học sinh giỏi Quốc Gia II MỤC TIÊU Cung cấp lý thuyết viết cơ bản như cấu trúc cách viết một bài tóm tắt hoàn chỉnh,cung cấp các kỹ thuật viết.I. HOW TO ORGANIZE A SUMMARY 1. STEPS TO WRITE A SUMMARY Always start with a summary statement including an action verb and the main idea of the whole text Only retain the details that support the main idea Paraphrase the main supporting details (Use your own words) Do not copy the original Maintain cohesion and coherence Do not include your own opinion or interpretation in the summary Demostrate the academic style with an awareness of formality, collocation. (less common lexical items) + Đọc hiểu ý chính bài text Câu đầu tiên cần đề cập Summary statement (cần thông tin tham chiếu) “The extractarticlepaperstudypasage… “ In the extract, the authorwriter According to the extract, + Action verbs (discusscompareproposedefinecompare….) : cần chọn động từ cho thích hợp

I. HOW TO ORGANIZE A SUMMARY

- Always start with a summary statement including an action verb and the main idea ofthe whole text

- Only retain the details that support the main idea

- Paraphrase the main supporting details (Use your own words)

- Do not copy the original

- Maintain cohesion and coherence

- Do not include your own opinion or interpretation in the summary

- Demostrate the academic style with an awareness of formality, collocation (lesscommon lexical items)

+ Đọc hiểu ý chính bài text

Câu đầu tiên cần đề cập Summary statement (cần thông tin tham chiếu)

“The extract/article/paper/study/pasage/… “

In the extract, the author/writer

According to the extract,

+ Action verbs (discuss/compare/propose/define/compare/….) : cần chọn động từ cho thíchhợp

+ Main ideas of the whole text

TIPS AND NOTES

Summary is the first part in the writing section of the NEC, making up 15 out of 60 points.You will be required to paraphrase and summarize an academic passage of about 350 words.You should finish this part less than 15 minutes

- Write in one paragraph only

- Start with a topic sentence that covers all the main contents of the passage Aconclusion is optional

- Calculate wisely how many words you will write to cover one paragraph and divide itinto sentences as there is limitation on word number

- Choose words and phrases that suit the tone and diction of the original passage

- Use of wide range of grammatical structures and vocabulary

- Exclude details and examples

- Copy too many words in the original passage However, key concepts can bemaintained, for instance, the word “adjunct” in NEC 2016 Try to diversify by usingyour own words and various sentence structures

- Change the order of the original passage

- Add your own opinion and interpretation The author’s point of view must bemaintained

HOW TO SHARPEN YOUR SUMMARIZING SKILL

1 The best thing about the summarizing skill is that you can practice it while simultaneouslypracticing your reading skill, so you can “kill two birds with one stone” While reading anykind of reading, you should pay attention to its idea organization, tone and diction Moreover,highlight the keywords and phrases In the long run, this will develop for you a “systematic”mindset which will enable you to easily recognize the general idea and structure of anypassage at first glance, but for literacy and non-academic passages, it will be much moredifficult to discern their idea organization Fortunately, the passages featured in real tests willinvariably be academic ones with relatively straightforward structure

2 The sources of summary exercises are often academic reading passages of the IELTS orTOEFL test Thus, you can refer to these sources to find suitable practice materials foryourself If you don’t have sufficient time to write your summary out, just picture out itsstructures and plan it out in your head If you can afford the time, write out the wholeparagraph and proof-read it to check whether it is easy to understand and contains must-haveinformation, whether the structure, tone, diction of the original passage are retained If not,re-write you have been satisfied with your composition

3 The website http://www.englishdaily626.com/summary.php?176 offers summary exerciseswith model answers Compare your own paragraphs to the model ones so as to have a deeperinsight into your ability Identify your particular weakness Do you leave out importantinformation? Do you include too much information? Does your writing style correspond tothat of the original source? After you have recognized your shortcomings, bear them in mindwhenever you do a summary so as to avoid repeating the same mistakes

4 For extra practice exercises, check out the writing task 1 of the TOEFL iBT test In thissection, you have to summarize information from both reading and listening extracts.Because you have to listen and read to take note of the information, you will be provided withthe chance to sharpen your skill of selecting key facts

HOW TO SHARPEN YOUR PARAPHARSING SKILL

1 When you learn vocabulary, don’t just study word only Instead, pay attention to itssynonyms, antonyms and other forms as well This will expand your vocabulary range, whichgreatly facilitates the paraphrasing process Try to apply your lexical knowledge to yourwriting, but don’t misuse them You should check whether the tone of the word suits that ofthe passage as well

2 Although the sentence transformation exercise has been excluded from most tests, don’tneglect it This type of exercise offers valuable chances to sharpen your paraphrasing skill.You can learn how to apply new vocabulary knowledge and different grammar structures toyour writing

3 Writing essays is also an effective way to practice paraphrasing While writing, you willhave to find ways to demonstrate your ideas in words through utilizing your wealth if lexicalknowledge in a flexible and natural way

Practice 1

Perhaps the biggest challenge in recruitment as these new studies have shown is that paperqualifications are unlikely to be helpful in predicting who will be best at solving yourcompany’s problems

 The failure to evaluate the problem-solving ability/skills of candidates through degree poses challenges to difficulties to recruitment

 That certificates and degrees fail to estimate/evaluate/ appreciate the problem-solving ability/skills of candidates challenges/causes to difficulties to hiring process

Practice 2

The market for tourism in remote areas is booming as never before Countries all across theworld are actively promotong their “wilderness” regions – such as mountains, Arctic lands,deserts, small islands and wetlands - to high-spending tourists The attraction of these areas isobvious: by definition, wilderness tourism requires little or no initial investment

 The low start-up cost of wilderness tourism appeals many countries, making an unprecedented growth aiming at/ targeting luxurious tourists

 The unprecedented growth of wilderness tourism targeting luxurious tourists can be attributed to its low start-up cost/

 Wilderness tourism, as a naturally self-sustaining industry, has attracted large scale promotion internationally

Practice 3

The escalating cost of higher education is causing many to question the value of continuingeducation beyond high school Many wonder whether the high cost of tution, the opportunitycost of choosing college near full – time employment and the accumulation of thousands ofdollars of debt is, in the long run, worth the investment This risk is especially large for low-income families who have a difficult time making ends meet without the additional burden ofcollege tuition and fees

 The soaring tuition fees concern about the value of tertiary education is a worthy investment between the pursuit of higher education and full – time career

 Over the course of a few decades, home is no longer where homeschooling is attached

to and solitude is hardly present in students’ life

Practice 6

The desire to alter or to add to the original natural state is so prevalent in the human speciesthat we must assume it has become an inborn human trait

 Such is the popularity of the aspiration for change in and addition to the natural condition that is allegedly an innate human characteristic

Practice 7

It was simultaneous of linguistic competence and a capacity for complex thought that gave us

an evolutionary edge over other animals

 That our ability to use language and our complicated cognition evolved contemporaneously made us more advantageous than other species

Household stylist Ablgail Hall agrees “I often style houses for sale and you’d be amazed howimportant the contents of the bookcase can be” Apparently, people use such clues to formjudgments about the type of person who lives in a property that’s up for sale, and this may

whose tastes in such matters match our own, and we can imagine living happily in a space that like-minded people have made homely For the interior designer, however, the art of reputation management-via-bookshelf is not the only issue Books can also become an integrative display tool They can almost be sculptural in that they offer a physical stacking them on a bookcase, it’s how you stack them I’ve seen books arranged by color, stacked on top of each other Once I saw a load of coffee-table books piled up to become a coffee table in themselves Books define a space, if you have some books and a comfy chair, you’ve immediately created an area It’s a trick of which countless hotels, cafes and waiting rooms for fee-paying clients are too aware Placing a few carefully-chosen books atop coffee tables

is about creating an ambiance No one actually engages with the content And this principle can be transferred to the home “I’ve not actually read any of them I just love the bindings

So said the actress, Davinia Taylor, earlier this year when she decided to put her house on the market-complete with its carefully-sourced collection of classic books

TASK 2: Read the following extract and use your own words to summarise it Your summary should be between 100 and 120 words (1,5/20 points)

Cycads are known as “living fossils” partly because of their pristine structure, but additionally, fossil of the plant indicate that it has been around since the era known as the Permian Period, which occurred 290 to 250 million years ago Along with conifers such as pine and fir, they are considered gymnosperms, meaning the plant’s seeds are exposed on the surface rather than being closed Cycads have a trunk that exists mainly underground and leafy fronds sticking up above ground situated around a single cone The cone is a greenish color when it is young, and it matures, it changes to a shade of yellow Previously, scientists believed that cycads were pollinated by the wind This can occur when the wind blows pollen from male cones to nearby female cones, but scientists began to question this theory because the space in which the wind needed to to penetrate the cycad cone was too small, preventing this means of pollination Researchers soon began to study cycads and their miniscule pollinators, the insects known as thrips Closer inspection led them to believe that thrips are the plant’s only pollinators and that their relationship is twofold : thrips eat the cycad’s pollen and cycads reproduce through the pollination carried out by thrip activity

When the temperature rises, a substantial odor emits from the cone The odor is described as harsh and over powering, unlike any other common odor One of the odors is a chemical known as beta-myrcene, which increases to toxic levels, proving lethal to the thrips and driving them from the cones As they leave the male cones, they take pollen a long with them

on their bodies As the plants cool down, the cones emit much lower levels of beta-myrcene, which then attracts the thrips, and the pollen they carried away, back to the plants, specifically the female cones Thus,the thrips effectively remove pollen from the male cones and deposit it in the female cones, and the pollination process is complete Scientists believe that plants have evolved by producing chemical defenses in order to drive away animals that

attract the insects necessary to pollinate them The method of pollination characterized by the relationship between cycads and thrips is referred to as “push-pull pollination” Researchers view the push-pull pollination process as an intermediate evolutionary stage for plants, using odor to attract pollinators, repel herbivores, and be pollinated by wind-blown pollen Compelling evidence supports this theory of evolution as a means of protection and reproduction to further a species Over centuries, plants have refined the functions they are capable of to become a sustainable species As a result, plants such as cycads have existed over a timeline of more than 250 million years and will be in existence for millions of years

to come

TASK 3: [ Note: This is an extract from a Part 3 text about the ‘Plain English’ movement, which promotes the use of clear English.] ‘The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language’, David Crystal, 3rd Edition, © Cambridge University Press, 2010. The instructions accompanying do-it-yourself products are regularly cited as a source of unnecessary expense or frustration Few companies seem to test their instructions by having them followed by a first-time user Often, essential information is omitted, steps in the construction process are taken for granted, and some degree of special knowledge is assumed This is especially worrying in any fields where failure to follow correct procedures can be dangerous Objections to material in plain English have come mainly from the legal profession Lawyers point to the risk of ambiguity inherent in the use of everyday language for legal or official documents, and draw attention to the need for confidence in legal formulations, which can come only from using language that has been tested in courts over the course of centuries The campaigners point out that there has been no sudden increase in litigation as a consequence of the increase in plain English materials Similarly, professionals in several different fields have defended their use of technical and complex language as being the most precise means of expressing technical or complex ideas This is undoubtedly true: scientists, doctors, bankers and others need their jargon in order to communicate with each other succinctly and unambiguously But when it comes to addressing the non-specialist consumer, the campaigners argue, different criteria must apply Complete the summary below Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet. Consumers often complain that they experience a feeling of 1 ………… when trying to put together do-it-yourself products which have not been tested by companies on a 2 …………

In situations where not keeping to the correct procedures could affect safety issues, it is especially important that 3 ………… information is not left out and no assumptions are made about a stage being self-evident or the consumer having a certain amount of 4 …………

Lawyers, however, have raised objections to the use of plain English They feel that it would

result in ambiguity in documents and cause people to lose faith in 5 ………… , as it would

mean departing from language that has been used in the courts for a very long time

KEYS

1 frustration

4 special knowledge

5 legal formulations

PRACTICE 1

Once a location is established as a main tourist destination, the effects on the local community are profound When hill-farmers, for example, can make more money in a few weeks working as porters for foreign trekkers than they can in a year working in their fields,

it is not surprising that many of them give up their farm-work, which is thus left to other members of the family In some hill-regions, this has led to a serious decline in farm output and a change in the local diet, because there is insufficient labour to maintain terraces and irrigation systems and tend to crops The result has been that many people in these regions have turned to outside supplies of rice and other foods

In Arctic and desert societies, year-round survival has traditionally depended on hunting animals and fish and collecting fruit over a relatively short season However, as some inhabitants become involved in tourism, they no longer have time to collect wild food; this has led to increasing dependence on bought food and stores Tourism is not always the culprit behind such changes All kinds of wage labour, or government handouts, tend to undermine traditional survival systems Whatever the cause, the dilemma is always the same: what happens if these new, external sources of income dry up?

The physical impact of visitors is another serious problem associated with the growth in adventure tourism Much attention has focused on erosion along major trails, but perhaps more important are the deforestation and impacts on water supplies arising from the need to provide tourists with cooked food and hot showers In both mountains and deserts, slow-growing trees are often the main sources of fuel and water supplies may be limited or vulnerable to degradation through heavy use

PRACTICE 2

Buying things today is so simple Just enter a shop, say a book store, choose the desired book and pay for it Long ago, before the invention of money, how did people trade? The most primitive way of exchange should be the barter trade

In this form of transaction, people used goods to exchange for the things that they had in mind For instance, if person A wanted a book and he had a spare goat, he must look for someone who had the exact opposite, that is, that someone, say person B, must have a spare book of person A's choice and is also in need of a goat Having found such a person, the

have to offer person A something else, say five chickens However, he runs the risk of person

A rejecting the offer as he may not need the chickens The above example clearly illustrates the inefficiency of barter trading

Many years later, the cumbersome barter trade finally gave way to the monetary form of exchange when the idea of money was invented In the early days, almost anything could qualify as money: beads, shells and even fishing hooks Then in a region near Turkey, gold coins were used as money In the beginning, each coin had a different denomination It was only later, in about 700 BC, that Gyges, the king of Lydia, standardized the value of each coin and even printed his name on the coins

Monetary means of transaction at first beat the traditional barter trade However, as time went by, the thought of carrying a ponderous pouch of coins for shopping appeared not only troublesome but thieves attracting Hence, the Greek and Roman traders who bought goods from people faraway cities, invented checks to solve the problem Not only are paper checks easy to carry around, they discouraged robbery as these checks can only be used by the person whose name is printed on the notes Following this idea, banks later issued notes in exchange for gold deposited with them These bank notes can then be used as cash Finally, governments of today adopted the idea and began to print paper money, backed by gold for the country's use

PRACTICE 3

The child who is too aggressive is usually revealing tow difficulties Firstly, far from being tooconfident, he is actually not confident enough of himself Secondly, he has not learnt, or is afraid to trust, the acceptable ways of getting what he wants and defending his rights

Why the child lacks confidence may not be apparent In a young child, a lack of confidence can be readily understood He has not yet had enough experience to know what he can do An older child may be bullying and aggressive because he is too strictly held down at home, or equally because he is too laxly handled and has not been helped to self-control Too much and too little parental authority often have similar troubling effects on children of different temperaments

The same may be said of the second difficulty the child reveals by his aggressive behavior A young child does not yet know that here are better ways than fighting An older child may not have been given much guidance, or through circumstances he may not have had much experience in getting along with other children When parents or other adults have not been

on hand to teach and show children by their example, or have been too protective of their children in the pre-school years, it may take both time and experience for the children to learn

to get along with others, once they are in school and on their own

The child who is too aggressive needs his confidence build up in good and wholesome ways His boldness, his energy, his desire to lead and manage others can be directed into useful channels At home and in school, the aggressive child can be given more responsibility and more praise for his real achievements

PRACTICE 4

Scientists have identified two ways in which species disappear The first is through ordinary

or background extinctions, where species that fail to adapt are slowly replaced by more adaptable life forms The second is when large number of species go to the wall in relatively short periods of biological time There have been five such extinctions, each provoked by cataclysmic evolutionary events caused by some geological eruption, climate shift, or space junk slamming into the earth Scientists now believe that another mass extinction of species is currently under way – and this time human fingerprints are on the trigger How are doing it? Simply by demanding more and more space for ourselves In our assault on the ecosystems around us we have used a number of tools, from spear and gun to bulldozer and chainsaw Certain especially rich ecosystems have proved the most vulnerable In Hawaii more than half of the native birds are now gone - some 50 species Such carnage took place all across the island communities of the Pacific and Indian Oceans While many were hunted to extinction, others simply succumbed to the 'introduced predators' that humans brought with them: the cat, the dog, the pig and the rat Today the tempo of extinction is picking up speed Hunting is no longer the major culprit, although rare birds and animals continue to be butchered for their skin, feathers, tusks and internal organs, or taken as cage pets Today the main threat comes from the destruction of the habitat that wild plants, animals and insects need to survive The draining and damming of wetland and river courses threatens the aquatic food chain and our own seafood industry Overfishing and the destruction of fragile coral reefs destroy ocean biodiversity Deforestation is taking a staggering toll particularly in the tropics where the most global biodiversity is at stake The shrinking rainforest cover of the Congo and Amazon river-basins and such places as Borneo and Madagascar, has a wealth of species per hectare existing nowhere else As those precious hectares are drowned or turned into arid pasture and cropland, such species disappear forever

PRACTICE 5

Have you ever wondered why soldiers are always clad in green? This is to enable them to camouflage themselves during wartime Hiding in the jungles, their green attire blend into the surrounding trees and shrubs, making it difficult for the enemies to spot them Long before man make use of camouflaging, insects have already adopted the tactic of disguise to escape from the clutches of their predators By having body colors close to those of the rocks and dried leaves, they catch less attention from the predators and hence escape from being pursued However, this kind of disguise works only if the insects remain still in the presence

of their predators Butterflies and moths have developed a variety of camouflage strategies since they are quite defenceless and their predators - birds are abundant in supply Many moth caterpillars resemble dead twigs while the young of certain species of butterflies appear like

bird droppings Adult butterflies and moths camouflage themselves too, in attempts to escape from their hunters birds who are superior gliders Possessing wings which resemble dried leaves help certain butterflies and moths to hide among heaps of dried leaves when predators are around Fortunately, not all insects choose the art of disguise to escape from their predators; otherwise, the world would be so dull and colorless There are insects which assimilate the bright body colors of bees and wasps to escape from being pursued by their predators The concept of mimicry was derived, owing to the bees and wasps Long ago, birds have already learnt to avoid brilliantly colored wasps and bees in fear of their painful stings Hence, over millions of years, many harmless insects have assimilated the bees and wasps by imitating their bright body colors and shapes In this way, they appear dangerous to their predators and hence ward them off Mimics of the wasps and bees are most commonly found

in the gardens The furry, plump bee-fly not only appears like the bumble bee in terms of body colors, even its hums sound similar too The only difference is that the bee-fly does not have a sting and is hence harmless The hoverfly is another insect which imitates the body colors of the wasps Their bodies are striped yellow and black The only deviations are that hoverflies do not have stings and they have only one pair of wings each while wasps have two pairs each These variations are hardly noticed by the predators and hence help them to escape

PRACTICE 6

As what geographers have estimated, about twenty percent of the earth's surface is occupied

by deserts A majority of us view deserts as one unique kind of landscape areas with little

or no rainfalls In actual fact, there are differences between the deserts, though in varying degrees While it is common for laymen like us to see deserts as rocky or covered with gravel

or pebbles, there are some where large sand dunes inhabit Despite the fact that rainfall is minimal, temperatures do change in deserts, ranging from seasonal ones to daily changes where extreme hotness and coldness are experienced in the day and night Unfavorable conditions in the deserts, especially the lack of water, have discouraged many living things from inhabiting these landscapes Nevertheless, there are exceptionally surviving ones which through their superb tactics, have managed to live through and are still going strong One such kind is the specialist annual plants which overcome seasonal temperature changes with their extremely short, active life cycles In events of sudden rain, the plant seeds pullulate and grow very quickly to make full use of the rain water Their flowers bloom and set seeds that ripen quickly in the hot sun too Once the water runs dry, the mother plant dies, leaving behind the drought-resistant seeds, waiting patiently for the next rainy season to arrive The Cacti, a native in American deserts, adapts to the dry surroundings by having unique body structures The plant has swollen stems to help store water that carries it through months By having sharp pines instead of leaves, water loss through respiration is minimized Besides,

these pointed pines also help the plant ward off grazing animals, thus enhancing its survival period Besides plants, there are also animals with distinct surviving tactics in deserts too For instance, Skinks (desert lizards) metabolize stored fats in their bulbous tails, producing water

to supplement their needs, just like what camels do with the stored food in their humps during long journeys through deserts Antelopes like the addax, have very low water needs and hence are able to tolerate the conditions in deserts, extracting moisture from the food they eat Finally, there are the sandgrouses (desert birds) which do not have special features to overcome the drought-like nature in deserts Hence, to survive in these hot, dry deserts, they need to spend a large part of their time flying in search of waterholes

PRACTICE 7 (HSGQG2017) Scientists have identified two ways in which species disappear The first is through ordinary or “background” extinctions, where species that fail to adapt are slowly replaced by more adaptable life forms The second is when large numbers of species go to the wall in relatively short periods of biological time There have been five such extinctions, each provoked by cataclysmic evolutionary events caused by some geological eruption, climate shift, or space junk slamming into the earth Scientists now believe that another mass extinction of species is currently under way – and this time human fingerprints are on the trigger How are we doing it? Simply by demanding more and more space for ourselves In our assault on the ecosystems around us we have used a number of tools, from spear and gun to bulldozer and chainsaw Certain especially rich ecosystems have proved the most vulnerable In Hawaii more than half of the native birds are now gone – some 50 species Such carnage has taken place all across the island communities of the Pacific and Indian oceans While many species were hunted to extinction, others simply succumbed to the “introduced predators” that humans brought with them: the cat, the dog, the pig, and the rat Today the tempo of extinction is picking up speed Hunting is no longer the major culprit, although rare birds and animals continue to be butchered for their skin, feathers, tusks, and internal organs, or taken as cage pets Today the main threat comes from the destruction of the habitat that wild plants, animals, and insects need to survive The draining and damming of wetland and river courses threatens the aquatic food chain and our own seafood industry Overfishing and the destruction of fragile coral reefs destroy ocean biodiversity Deforestation is taking a staggering toll, particularly in the tropics where the most global biodiversity is at stake The shrinking rainforest cover of the Congo and Amazon river basins and such places as Borneo and Madagascar have a wealth of species per hectare existing nowhere else As those precious hectares are drowned or turned into arid pasture and cropland, such species disappear forever

PRACTICE 8 (HSGQG 2018)

Stress is the term used to describe the physical and emotional rigours our bodies undergowhen we adapt to changes in our lives Contrary to popular belief, stress can produce positiveresponses as well as the well-documented adverse symptoms Positive stress, as it is known,can spur us on to greater heights by increasing awareness which, in turn, helps us to lead afuller, more satisfying life Unfortunately, though, any benefits that stress may bring very

Far from producing a feeling of well-being, negative stress induces a range of unpleasantmental, behavioral and physiological reactions: Basically, its victims suffer from low self-esteem due to an inability to achieve set goals This results primarily in a fear of furtherfailure Outwardly, people exposed to extremely stressful situations display distinct patterns

of behavior They become increasingly impulsive, more heavily dependent on nicotine, drugs

or alcohol and excessively prone to overeating The upshot of all this is that unrelieved stresscauses sweating, an increased heartbeat rate, sleeping problems and inexplicable tiredness This list alone is enough to heighten anxiety even if you are not stressed out, but advice is not

in short supply for those who are Although what they advise is not equally applicable toevery person negatively affected by stress, there are some useful standard recommendations.Any strategy for tackling stress should begin with actually recognizing there is a problemrather than denying it When the root of the problem has been identified, it is time to react.This involves pinpointing ways of modifying or changing the factors responsible for it.Finally, action needs to be taken to reduce the intensity of the stressors There is a host oftactics available at this stage, each of which is designed to alleviate stress to differingdegrees These include shortening exposure to stressors, moderating physical reactions tothem and building physical reserves which can provide protection against them throughregular exercise

PRACTICE 9

Such is our dependence on fossil fuels, and such is the volume of carbon dioxide already released into the atmosphere, that many experts agree that significant global warming is now inevitable They believe that the best we can do is keep it at a reasonable level, and at present the only serious option for doing this is cutting back on our carbon emissions But while a few countries are making major strides in this regard, the majority are having great difficulty even stemming the rate of increase, let alone reversing it Consequently, an increasing

number of scientists are beginning to explore the alternative of geo-engineering — a term which generally refers to the intentional large-scale manipulation of the

environment According to its proponents, geo-engineering is the equivalent of a backup generator: if Plan A - reducing our dependency on fossil fuels - fails, we require a Plan B, employing grand schemes to slow down or reverse the process of global warming

B

Geo-engineering has been shown to work, at least on a small localised scale For decades, MayDay parades in Moscow have taken place under clear blue skies, aircraft having

deposited dry ice, silver iodide and cement powder to disperse clouds Many of the schemes now suggested look to do the opposite, and reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the planet.The most eye-catching idea of all is suggested by Professor Roger Angel of the University of Arizona His scheme would employ up to 16 trillion minute spacecraft, each weighing about one gram, to form a transparent, sunlight-refracting sunshade in an orbit 1.5 million km above the Earth This could, argues Angel, reduce the amount of light reaching the Earth by two per cent

C

The majority of geo-engineering projects so far carried out — which include planting forests

in deserts and depositing iron in the ocean to stimulate the growth of algae - have focused on

achieving a general cooling of the Earth But some look specifically at reversing the melting

at the poles, particularly the Arctic The reasoning is that if you replenish the ice sheets and frozen waters of the high latitudes, more light will be reflected back into space, so reducing the warming of the oceans and atmosphere

PRACTICE 10

There is a great concern in Europe and North America about declining standards of literacy inschools In Britain, the fact that 30 per cent of 16 year olds have a reading age of 14 or lesshas helped to prompt massive educational changes The development of literacy has far-reaching effects on general intellectual development and thus anything which impedes thedevelopment of literacy is a serious matter for us all So the hunt is on for the cause of thedecline in literacy The search so far has focused on socio-economic factors, or theeffectiveness of 'traditional' versus 'modern' teaching techniques

The fruitless search for the cause of the increase in illiteracy is a tragic example of the saying'They can't see the wood for the trees' When teachers use picture books, they are simplycontinuing a long-established tradition that is accepted without question[18] And for the pasttwo decades, illustrations in reading primers have become increasingly detailed and 'obtrusive, while language has become impoverished - sometimes to the point of extinction

Amazingly, there is virtually no empirical evidence to support the use of illustrations inteaching reading On the contrary, a great deal of empirical evidence shows that picturesinterfere in a damaging way with all aspects of learning to read Despite this, from North